Animus Dragons
Animus dragons are individuals with the ability to enchant things, such as objects, animals, and dragons. Some examples of animus powers are disguising dragons , creating dreamvisitors , finding a specific dragon , or controlling another dragon . Sometimes, animus dragons are not aware of their powers . The only confirmed limitation of animus magic is bringing back the dead. Tui T. Sutherland has mentioned there are more rules to animus magic. Every time an animus dragon uses his or her power, it is thought that they lose a bit of their soul, bringing them closer to insanity . As of The Hive Queen, no animus dragons can cast spells, and Jerboa II is hinted to be behind this. Animus History * Albatross: A former prince of the SeaWing tribe. Albatross made several enchantments over the course of a decade - including building the Summer Palace - before going insane and attempting to kill everyone, including his family. This event was known as the Royal SeaWing Massacre. * Princess Anemone: A daughter of Queen Coral. Anemone used her magic for various things, including a spear to find Whirlpool (after he attacked Tsunami), a spell on Auklet's harness, and the weather bracelets Qibli used during Darkness of Dragons. She was enchanted to be an animus dragon by her brother Prince Turtle, at the Talons of Power Ceremony, as Turtle did not want the responsibilities of an animus. * Prince Arctic: Darkstalker's father was Prince Arctic, an IceWing prince that fell in love with Foeslayer. He knew he could never be with her unless he ran away from his tribe. He used his animus power to enchant an earring that would keep Foeslayer warm in cold climates and safe from danger as long as she wore it. A few days before his "Gifting Ceremony", Foeslayer and Arctic slipped out of the Ice Kingdom together. He used his power again to help Foeslayer escape with him. The two ran away to the Night Kingdom, and later had two eggs: Darkstalker and Whiteout. Darkstalker claims that his father used his power behind the backs of the other IceWings and was already insane. He also claims he had no choice but to kill him. * Darkstalker: Darkstalker was a half NightWing, half IceWing animus, born with strong powers of mind-reading and seeing the future. He put all of his animus power in a scroll or talisman, created the three dreamvisitors, and eventually became obsessed with power and attempted to become king of the NightWings. He killed his father, Arctic, by enchanting him to follow his commands and then ordered him to disembowel himself. His beloved, Clearsight, and his best friend, Fathom, tricked him with an animus-touched bracelet that put him to sleep for 2,000 years. He later awoke, buried underground, when the earthquakes caused the bracelet to break. In Moon Rising, he attempted to show Moonwatcher that he wasn't evil as everyone else thought. In Talons of Power, his power returned to him, and he proceeded to give many NightWings superpowers. In Darkness of Dragons he tried to make Clearsight "alive" by enchanting Fierceteeth. He also made Vulture's emotions change, horrifying Qibli greatly which partly led to his denial of Darkstalker's offer for animus magic. * Queen Diamond: A former Queen of the IceWings. As animus IceWings only used their power once for a "gift", Diamond's gift the IceWings the gift of healing, five narwhal horn spears that, if touched to a frostbreath injury, would heal it. She was also the only known IceWing (other than Arctic) to break this tradition and use her magic more than once, imprisoning Foeslayer in the Diamond Caves and creating the Diamond Trial. This was undone 2,000 years later by Winter. * Prince Fathom: A SeaWing animus, best friend of Darkstalker until he tricked him into an enchanted sleep. He swore to his sister never to use his powers after the Royal SeaWing Massacre. However, he used them once to stop Darkstalker, and another time to save his other best friend, Indigo, both incidences breaking his oath. He was fearful about using his power due to the effects it might have on him. *'Princess Frostbite:' An IceWing princess that made the Moon Globe Tree, the Gift of Light. According to Winter, she painstakingly carved the tree with her claws instead of enchanting it to grow that way, and often went outside the Ice Kingdom to study trees. *'Jerboa:' Jerboa, a SandWing from the time of [[Darkstalker (Legends)|''Darkstalker (Legends)]] was the first known SandWing animus. She ran away after she was sentenced to death by Queen Scorpion because of the lack of knowledge on animus dragons. She enchanted her daughter to be safe from any sort of harm. *'Jerboa II:' Daughter of the original Jerboa, she appears in the epilogue of ''Darkness of Dragons, The Lost Continent, and is a POV in The Poison Jungle's epilogue. Her mother enchanted her so nothing could ever harm her. This seems to have defeated death, as well, making her the second dragon to be shown in the series to be immortal. *'Princess Orca:' An animus SeaWing, she had enchanted one of her sculptures of herself to kill other female dragons in her bloodline so she could rule forever. She was killed challenging her mother, Queen Coral, for the throne. Queen Coral put her enchanted sculpture in the underwater Royal Hatchery, where it proceeded to crush the Queen's female eggs. Orca had kept her animus powers a secret, so Queen Coral had never known about the enchanted statue until the end of The Lost Heir. *'Penguin:' An animus IceWing who created the Gift of Diplomacy, a dome that possessed a warm climate on the inside for foreign guests, as well as the set of three bracelets that kept the guests warm and safe from the Great Ice Cliff. *'Stonemover:' A NightWing animus. Stonemover figured out a way to transfer the soul loss into his scales, gradually turning them into stone. He described it as "turning the magic upon itself". However, he was already weak from creating tunnels that lead to the Kingdom of Sand and the Rainforest Kingdom, where the RainWings lived. Stonemover enchanted a fox named Dinner to bring him the food he needed, for he was too weak to do it himself. He may have created the Obsidian Mirror and did something to it when he left so that it didn't work as well. *'Prince Turtle:' A SeaWing animus who kept his powers a secret like his deceased sister, Orca, he claimed he only enchanted small things, like a river stone he enchanted to heal flesh and muscle wounds in Escaping Peril. However, he concealed the fact that he also enchanted Anemone, his sister, to become an animus in the Talons of Power Ceremony so he could conceal his own ability. In ''Talons of Power'','' Darkstalker takes away Turtle's animus power, claiming that he was too clever to have animus magic, having erased his presence completely from Darkstalker by using his magic. He has his powers restored when he put on a duplicate of Qibli’s earring enchanted to protect the wearer from Darkstalker’s spells. Effects It was thought that using any animus magic could cause insanity, though it was later confirmed that only happens if an animus dragon uses their magic for evil. An example is Albatross, with Lagoon forcing him to use his magic for her own gain being the possible catalyst. To get around these supposed effects, Stonemover enchanted his body to slowly turn into stone when he used his powers, instead of him losing his soul. Orca proved her insanity and hunger for power when she enchanted her statue that was supposed to kill any female dragonets of Coral so she could rule without being challenged by siblings. Although, this could have been an oversight, as Orca thought she would win the challenge. Princess Anemone went partly insane in Talons of Power, although she was reverted to her normal self again, thanks to Turtle. Dragons going insane were described to have "hooded eyes". The number of enchantments an animus dragon can make before going insane may vary, as shown in the case of Princess Anemone and Prince Turtle. However, there appears to be possible reason embedded within their emotions when animi lose their soul, as shown with Albatross and Anemone. Based upon what Albatross's action of strangling a seagull silently with a piece of seaweed in the background after learning that Fathom was an animus, and what he said to Fathom during the Royal SeaWing Massacre, he seemed to become jealous and resent Fathom, saying that he was the better animus until Fathom's abilities were exposed, and that he was going to kill him for it. However, Albatross did not succeed in killing Fathom, as Fathom stabbed him with a spear in self-defense, ending the Massacre. There is a different reason behind Anemone's insanity during Talons of Power, as also seen in her actions and words, that Anemone was tired of not being her own dragon, and that she was going to 'show who she really was'. She also showed similar anger about other animi (as seen directed towards Turtle) the way Albatross had, saying that 'she was the SeaWing animus' instead of Turtle. However, Turtle saved Anemone from her insanity by taking away her animus powers, reverting her back to her normal self. Known Animus Dragons * Prince Albatross (SeaWing) * Princess Anemone (artificial animus, enchanted by her brother Turtle) * Prince Arctic (IceWing) * King Darkstalker (NightWing-IceWing hybrid) * Queen Diamond (IceWing) * Prince Fathom (SeaWing) * Princess Frostbite (IceWing) * Jerboa (SandWing) * Jerboa II (SandWing) * Princess Orca (SeaWing) * Penguin (IceWing) * Stonemover (NightWing) * Prince Turtle (SeaWing) Trivia * Tui has stated that there was no first animus dragon; they originated from multiple dragons . * The actual definition of the word animus is motivation to do something, a hostile or ill feeling, or a theory by Carl Jung describing the unconscious masculine part of a female's personality. The term ''animus is also Latin for mind or heart ''or ''soul. * Animus power can be sensed and felt by a "faint tingling in the claws". * Princess Sunset has confirmed that SkyWings have had animus dragons in the past, but they tended to be killed as soon as they were discovered. * The RainWings have never had any animus dragons. * It is unknown if an animus dragon has ever existed in the MudWing Kingdom. ** The only suggestion that a MudWing animus could exist is the defective MudWing shown in Burn's tower, whose egg was supposedly animus-touched. * On June 2nd, 2018 in Winchester, MA, Tui confirmed that ancient IceWing animus dragons had their gifting ceremonies when they turned seven years old. * Animus genes formerly ran in the IceWing royal family. This is because the IceWings purposely bred their animi into the royal family, to gain more power. * It is said that all animus dragons are part IceWing, which makes sense in several different cases. For example, any NightWing animus would be related to Darkstalker, who was half IceWing. This is also in the SandWings, since Stonemover was a NightWing and had an egg with Thorn, creating Sunny. However, this only continues if Sunny has eggs. * The IceWings genetically bred animus magic into their dragons and set up a system so every animus only uses their power once, so they don't go insane. However, Queen Diamond and Prince Arctic did not follow this law, resulting in the Ice Kingdom's loss of their animus dragons and the loss of Queen Diamond's sanity. * SeaWing animus dragons can enchant objects using Aquatic, as confirmed in Talons of Power. *In an interview at the Rochester Children's Book Festival, when Tui was asked for the inspiration for animus magic, she replied: "So with animus magic, it started with thinking, I needed some kind of magic in this world, but I didn't want it to be like anyone can have any magic at any time, I wanted it to be sort of specific, and have it be pretty rare. And then, especially with Book Two, the more I started thinking about what I could do with it, and how it could fit into the murder mystery, that's how sorta started developing like, the backstory of what it does to you and all of that." *It may be possible to tell a dragonet is an animus before they hatched, as SkyWings threw eggs off cliffs once the realized the dragonet inside was an animus. Gallery Darkstalker .jpeg|King Darkstalker Talons of Power (Full Cover).jpg|Turtle and Anemone. StonemoverTemplate.png|Stonemover, Sunny's father 8B8D458F-0AE6-4535-BFB9-9F1F6A61DF43.jpeg|Anemone uses animus magic Darkstalkernew2.png|King Darkstalker References https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nuq-7LETH-U de:Animare Drachen fr:Animus pl:Animus Category:All Tribe History Category:Terminology